Plans unveiled for new Hartlepool household waste recycling centre in the week that booking system is scrapped

The news comes in the same week that the existing Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC), in Burn Road, Hartlepool, scraps its booking system, with no appointments needed to visit the site from Wednesday, September 4.

The decision to carry out a feasibility study into providing a new site comes as part of wider changes around how and where non-recyclable waste is disposed.

Such waste is managed through a regional partnership formed by Tees Valley authorities, Durham County Council and Newcastle City Council.

The current region-wide facility for disposing non-recyclable waste at Haverton Hill is “coming to the end of its serviceable life”.

It will be replaced by a new site in Grangetown, between Middlesbrough and Redcar, which is anticipated to be operational by late 2029.

Following an options appraisal, a new residual waste transfer station in Hartlepool is proposed.

This is where the borough’s non-recyclable waste will be taken and then transported in bulk to Grangetown using council vehicles.

Hartlepool Borough Council chiefs said this represents “the best value, most environmentally appropriate and operationally resilient solution” given that the new Grangetown facility will be further away than at present.

This has also led to discussions about combining the new Hartlepool waste transfer station with a replacement for the Burn Road HWRC on one site.

Council chiefs said this could provide “operational savings” and “avoid increasing annual infrastructure repair pressures associated with an old site”.

A site for the combined operation has still to be confirmed.

While the booking system at Burn Road may have ended, visitors are asked to bring photographic ID and proof of address as spot checks will be carried out periodically to ensure that users are from Hartlepool.

Visitors are also asked to stop at the site office so that staff can direct them to the appropriate disposal point and take payment for any chargeable waste.

The HWRC will be open from Wednesdays-Sundays from 9am-noon (with gates closing at 11.50am) and in the afternoon from 1pm-6pm (gates closing at 5.50pm) from April 1-October 31.

This reverts to 1pm-4pm from November 1-March 31 (gates closing at 3.50pm).

The decision to scrap the booking system was confirmed by new Labour-controlled council earlier this year.